


I'm a hot mess and you're falling for me

by Reasons_Why_Im_Crazy



Series: how many fics can i drag out of ep 14? [3]
Category: Shake It Up! (US TV)
Genre: Canon Rewrite, F/M, First Dance, First Kiss, Fix-It, Fluff, Two Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-11
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-18 16:42:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29985807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reasons_Why_Im_Crazy/pseuds/Reasons_Why_Im_Crazy
Summary: What if Gunther was a good date for Cece, would things end up differently?
Relationships: Gunther Hessenheffer/CeCe Jones
Series: how many fics can i drag out of ep 14? [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2108388
Kudos: 1





	I'm a hot mess and you're falling for me

**Author's Note:**

> this is a two parter, but you know how ao3 doesn't let you make it multichapter until you post the second chapter, so. Just letting y'all know this isn't done yet

As Cece watches Gunther pat the heart Tinka put on his vest, an uneasy feeling grows in her chest. Her heart beats faster and her body goes restless and fidgety. Rocky says it’s guilt, but she worries it might be something else as well. No, it can’t be. That would be ridiculous. 

“Ask him” 

“Please don’t make me...” Rocky gives her the infamous glare and points to the twins. It always makes Cece uneasy. She hurries away, wondering how she should open this conversation. Think, what respectful greeting would level with him?

“Hello baybee!” Damn it.

\---

“So here's the deal. I heard you don’t have a date to the dance and I…I-” Cece turns to Rocky with pleading eyes. “I just can’t look at him in the face and say it” Of course, she wasn’t getting off the hook that easily. 

“Say what exactly?” Gunther asks, seemingly getting on the defence by their behavior with every second. Rocky acts fast, wrapping her arm around Cece and shoving her behind. She looks at him with an apologizing face. 

“Sorry, she’s being a bit shy”

“Shy?” he repeats in disbelief. Rocky keeps her smile up and pats her on the head, a cue to make her look down on the floor for credibility. 

“Yeah, she’s never confessed to a crush before”

“ _ Crush _ ?” he repeats again, and his frown deepens. “Wait a minute, are you trying to ask me out?” She looks up to say something but Rocky is again way faster.

“Yeah! Cece’s little crush has been brewing for a long time” she pokes Cece and smiles even wider. “If you’d know how many times I’ve heard  _ oh, Gunther’s so cute, Gunther’s such a great dancer, oh, I wonder what Gunther would look like on a horse and- _ ”

“I think he gets it” Cece chirps and tugs on Rocky’s arm, making it fall off of her shoulder. She smiles to avoid suspicion but her face is warm with shame. Gunther looks rather flattered, fortunately, averting his gaze and grins when he’s being praised. There’s a blush on his cheeks as well and he glances at Cece first when he turns back to them. 

“Yes, I do get it. And by the way, I look magnificent on a horse” He stands a little taller, smiling while looking in the distance as if he’s letting Cece and Rocky watch his good side. It  _ would  _ be his good side if his pride wasn’t so transparent.

“I knew it” Tinka chimes in, getting all of their attention. “All those little games she plays. Putting  _ bugs  _ in your sandwiches-” Cece bites her lip. It was pretty funny, she thinks, remembering Gunther chucking his food across the room the moment he realizes they weren’t large peppercorns. “ _ -ignoring _ you for a year-” Ah, another fun prank. You’d think she got some peace and quiet, but no. He went after her, trying to get her attention by jumping around, yelling her name and giving her little notes. She has a hard time not giggling over it, and Rocky tucks her up, to keep her together. “ _ -calling immigration to deport you- _ ” That’s it, she stomps her foot to the ground, feeling Rocky’s iron grip around her arm, but it’s too funny. It wasn’t immigration, Cece doesn’t even know their number. She had called home and sent in a message, pretending to speak with some higher-ups. Gunther was crying next to her feet, and the microphone picked up on it. She kept that message and replayed it every time she was feeling down, because it never failed to make her laugh.

“She’s obviously smitten like a love-sick kitten” Tinka finishes while shrugging. Cece went past Rocky, keeping herself in the headspace of her memories to maintain eye contact with Gunther.

“So, could you  _ please  _ just say you’ll go to the dance with me?” Now, there’s no hopeful tone to her question, but as the twins seem to believe trying to  _ deport  _ someone is a legit way of expressing affection, she isn’t very concerned with her acting.

“I accept your solitiation to escort you to the dance” Gunther answers, giving Cece relief that it worked but also anxiety over what’s to come. Rocky is, however, very happy. 

“Yay! Cece and Gunther are going to the dance together!” she exclaims, loud enough for Gary to hear. He grins at them and picks up his phone.

“Aw, look at that” Cece feels Gunther’s hands on her shoulders, holding her gently as he leans closer to her. “A Shake it Up! Chicago showmance!” Gary takes a picture of them, and smiles at the screen. “This is going on the website”

\---

It doesn't feel like Cece is dating Gunther more than it feels like she’s a barbie smushed next to a Ken doll, as Rocky is planning their date before the dance. They’ll hang outside their apartment complex at Tino’s café, but as Gunther has to take the bus to their block, Cece will meet up with him at the bus stop. It’s not a big of a deal, she knows that. But when he said he was gonna be late, mistaking where the bus was gonna stop that day, when she already stood by the damn stop, she got a  _ little  _ agitated. It’s typical, nothing goes right with him. 

Walking back to Tino’s with her eyes on the pavement, clenching and unclenching her jaw restlessly, she hears his stupid voice a few feet away. 

“Ah Cece!” So he meets up with her? Couldn’t he have waited by the café? Maybe she could’ve cooled down by the time she would’ve been back, hearing him now only upsets her more. Cece opens her mouth ready to scold him for making her wait by the bus stop, but as she looks up at him, the words get stuck in her throat and her jaw dropped.

Gunther is barely recognisable, blending in with the other people walking on the street. He’s wearing a black hoodie, lacking any prints or rhinestones, over a jean jacket that has patches of rock bands covering the sleeves and the front, and regular ripped jeans. His high-top sneakers are black, just like the beanie on his head and the shoulder bag he’s carrying. He’s smiling at her and walks with a confidence like nothing is out of the ordinary. Cece is so caught up in the view of Hessenheffer looking normal that she stops walking, letting him close the distance himself. 

“I’m really sorry you had to wait” he says once they meet up. It sounds sincere. 

“Why are you dressed like you could sit at the cool table?” Cece asks, her brain yet again not in speaking with her mouth. Gunther blinks at her, a little caught off guard, but his smile resumes the next moment and he adjusts his jacket. 

“The cool table, huh? That’s a relief, I wasn’t sure what you’d like me to wear” His statement finally snaps her out of her daze. 

“You dressed up for me?”

“In our country, it is considered an honor to be asked out. To pay respect to the asker, the asked adjusts to their preference, as the asker has promised to be a good date” Cece frowns at him and bites her lip as she thinks. 

“So… by  _ adjusting _ , you mean-”

“Whatever you want it to mean” Gunther answers easily. “You have the reins of this horse carriage” He offers his arm, after a moment of hesitation she takes it, and they start walking back. 

“Do I even want to know  _ why  _ that’s a thing?”

“Well, isn’t it the same here?“ he asks. “The man chooses his woman, and she adjusts to him” Cece looks up at him wide eyed and with a deep frown.

“Yes, the guy asks the girl out, but not because of  _ that _ reason! It means he’s willing to commit, because before, a lot of girls were rejected and left on read when they took the first step” Gunther shrugs.

“Eh, basically the same thing. When a man asks a woman out he gives her father 15 goats, which is basically half his fortune. It’s difficult to back out from such a commitment” Cece glances up at him.

“Do I have to give your mom something for asking you out?” Gunther chuckles and shakes his head. 

“Unless you want to marry me, you don’t have to commit to my tradition”

“Ah” Cece answers, feeling her face go warm but she keeps looking forward. “Right” She wonders why the thought of marriage makes the fidgety feeling in her chest return. One thing is clear, it isn’t guilt, but she doesn’t want to keep thinking about it in case she finally figures it out.

They get to Tino’s and pick a table, the menus are inside if they wanted to get one.

“Have you picked a dress to the dance yet?” Gunther asks suddenly once they’re settled. Cece sighs.

“I was gonna wait until I got a date to match with, but then, you know, it took a while to  _ get  _ a date, and now the prices at the mall are all sky high. I dunno, maybe I’ll-” she swallows dryly. “-wear an old one”

“Or I could make you one” He suggests and Cece tenses up at the question. Oh no.. There’s no way she’ll be wearing 10 pounds of sparkly, fizzy, feathery layers of fabric. She has to come up with an excuse. She looks up at him with the most innocent expression, like she was gonna sweet-talk her way out of detention. 

“Oh, you don’t have to get out of your way to-”

“You shouldn’t buy an expensive dress or wear an old one. Besides, I like making dresses, but Tinka makes her own and almost never lets me make one for her”

“But buying the materials a-and will you even make it in time-” Gunther only smiles at her. He’s already taking out a journal from his bag.

“I’m sure the fabrics I already have at home are enough. You seem to like simple designs, too, so making it won’t take that long” Cece sighs and leans back on her chair. 

“Just… don’t make it weird” Gunther looks at her with a puzzled expression, and she wonders if she stepped over the line, but then he picks up a second pen and opens up a blank page.

“We can design it together. How about that?” He holds the pen out for her, and she accepts it. 

Cece never thought Gunther could be good at drawing, but thinking of how he and Tinka often sew or print new things on their clothes, it doesn’t sound far-fetched that they design what they make. His wrist is light as he sketches a silhouette of a person, drawing a line where the waist is and where the dress would end.

“Would you like it tight to the body, or something more poofy?” Cece’s face lights up.

“You know the dresses we wore for the Bling Bling dance?” Gunther responds by sketching up the general shape, giving the dress elbow length sleeves and a wide neckline, listening to the adjustments she’s giving him. She’s basically hovering above his shoulder, to the point she could rest her chin there, and that’s when she hears the doors to her apartment open.

“Hey, hey hey! How’s the happy couple?” Rocky cheers, skipping down the stairs with a big grin on her face. Cece automatically moves away from Gunther’s personal circle and into her own. He glances at her for a second but the next he smiles up to Rocky. 

“We’re discussing what to wear for the dance” to his reply, Rocky’s smile goes a little tense, and she glances around as if someone is looking at them. 

“No big presentation? That’s new” Gunther only smiles back, leaning closer to Cece so they share personal space again. 

“I wouldn’t want to make her do that on the first date”

“Really?” Rocky tilts her head and puts her hands on her hips. “Because Cece really  _ loves  _ attention, I bet she’d do great” Cece glances up at her with a firm face and shakes her head just a little so Gunther doesn’t notice.  _ Hopefully  _ he doesn’t. 

“Oh, but it takes lots of courage. You can’t blame her for being a little  _ shy _ ” he counters, wrapping an arm around her protectively and Cece leans in a little. She could get used to having him backing her up.

“Yeah, I’m definitely  _ too shy _ to do something like that” She knows the way Rocky pauses is to just drink the view. She bets she looks ridiculous, all nestled under his arm, her head could rest on his chest if they adjusted the position. It’s not all that uncomfortable, though. It’s warm and Gunther is wearing a cologne she enjoys, if she kept on cuddling him like this she’d probably have some wear off on her…

“You said you’re planning your outfits?” Rocky asks. “I bet it’s gonna be great. Can I see?”

Gunther shows the dress to her while reluctantly letting go of Cece. It gets a little cold on her side, and she runs her hand over her arm. Rocky’s face lights up, then it goes tense again, and then something in-between. “Wow! It’s- uhm… Well, I bet it’s not finished yet”

“Not yet, no” Gunther says simply.

“And it’ll for sure look even  _ flashier  _ in person”

“Hopefully” he gives her a court nod.

“I still kinda feel like you’re putting a lot of effort into me. I mean, it’s the first date and all” Cece mutters, trying to stop Rocky from encouraging him further. Gunther’s expression softens and he runs his hand over her cold arm. 

“I really don’t mind, like I said. I make excellent dresses, and no date is perfect without a pretty dress, and..” he smiles at her. “You deserve a perfect date” It’s hard to argue with that. Even Rocky awws behind her while clutching her chest. 

“Well, you can keep on thinking of what you want the dress to look like” he then says and stands up, picking up a wallet from his back jeans pocket. “I’m gonna get something to eat, do you want anything?” It’s aimed towards Cece, but both of them hold up their hands politely. 

“No thanks, I’m good” Gunther leaves them be, and Rocky stares after him.

“Did you dress him for the date? Because there’s no way he put  _ that  _ on willingly”

“Hey, I found him like that, don’t blame me” Cece responds and picks her nail. She however feels her stare in the back of her head. “What?”

“He’s obviously putting in the effort to make you happy. Shouldn’t you also put some effort in to make him happy?” 

“He could’ve said no, but he didn’t. So it seems to me he’s doing all of this because he wants to. Maybe this is his go-to strategy when he goes on dates” she lowers her voice. “But I doubt he’s dated before” Rocky raises her arms in frustration.

“I’m serious! If he is unhappy because you didn’t put in the equal interest, he’ll move anyway and this would all be for nothing”

“Oh, but  _ I am  _ interested” Cece finally says, turning around to look at Rocky and leaning on the chair nonchalantly. She lets out a little chuckle. “This was actually a great idea. Here I was thinking going alone to dance would be better than dating Gunther Hessenheffer, but he’s really proving me wrong! You’re  _ so good _ at making plans” She smiles at her the sweetest she can and Rocky only glares back, not dignifying her with an answer but instead flips through the journal Gunther gave her. Her eyes go big and she brings it closer to her face.

“Oh, he can actually draw…”

“Right? I didn’t believe him at first but then he started sketching up the dress and I was like-”

“No really, look” She brings the journal down to Cece’s eye-level and she now understands what she’s talking about. 

“Why am I not surprised he draws himself?” she asks, not expecting an answer. It’s a good sketch, a really good sketch actually. The smile is very accurate, along with the squint of his eyes. A little more mature looking than he is in real life, but one can hope he’ll look like that in a few years. Rocky flips through it some more. Most of it seems to be posture practice and sketches of random streets. Then, they stop at a drawing of Gary.

“Do you think he made the portrait on the cake they gave him?”

“He can’t be  _ that  _ good… to make cake art” Cece mutters in response, but her eyes are still stuck on the drawings. There are a few portraits in there, but not as refined as the first ones. She sees a few of what seems to be the same girl, but they are rough with lots of eraser marks. The girl has long wavy hair and bangs down to her eyes. Rocky pauses at one of those sketches, and they stare together trying to figure out who it is.

"I think it's you" Rocky mutters after some time. Cece shakes her head in disbelief.

"Why would he draw me?" 

"I don’t know, why would he draw  _ Gary _ ?" It is at that moment Gunther comes back outside. Rocky quickly flips back to the dress and they turn around to face him, pulling their most innocent faces. He doesn’t seem suspicious and smiles up at them, putting a muffin on the table, but he carries two other things as well.

"A rocky globe for Rocky" he says, handing Rocky a dark chocolate pastry in a napkin. He hands a large cookie that is wrapped in baking paper to Cece while smiling sweetly. "And a cookie for Cookie" 

"Oh, thank you Gunther” she accepts it and takes a large bite to hide her giddiness. Maybe the feeling in her chest will go away if she eats. The cookie is so soft it breaks apart with just her tongue and it’s stuffed with a rich chocolate inside. Soft cookies are her favourite, so naturally, the feeling in her chest expands even further. She now just hopes her cheeks aren’t pink.

“I couldn’t resist getting something for you” Gunther responds, stroking her arm again. Her cheeks are definitely pink now. “And I didn’t want to risk leaving you behind, Rocky”

“Oh, I wasn’t gonna stay for long” Rocky answers quickly as she awkwardly gives the journal back to him. “But I hope you two keep on having fun. I look forward to seeing the dress!” She goes back inside the apartment with a quick wave and a nod towards Cece. Gunther sits down, looking over the drawing and taking a bite of his muffin. 

“What color do you want the dress?” he asks.

“What colors do you own?”

“Enough to decide from. You do realize when you sew a lot, and have the fashion taste that I have, you’ll need lots of different fabrics?” Cece nods meekly and thinks quietly. 

“I think purple would be cute”

“Great!” Gunther puts a list next to the drawing. “Something deep, dark, or do you want something more pastel, lavender? And are you okay with sequins?” He asks the last question with a softer expression. Cece muffles a scoff.

“Of course I’m fine with sequins, I wear glam stuff all the time”

“Yeah, but, how much is  _ too much _ for you?”

“I bet it would be pretty if the whole dress was made of deep purple sequins” At that, Gunther looks at her with an expression she can’t really describe. He nods a little and draws small, quick circles in an area of the dress, and writes Sequins next to it. On the list he writes _Deep grape violet purple_ which could be the color of the fabric _,_ _Biance’s sparkles_ which Cece can only guess is a type of sequins or a store he buys it from. Then he lists up, _sangria silk thread_ , and _black shoes nr. 14_.

“I can get my own shoes” Cece mutters softly. Gunther responds by taking up his phone and showing her a pair of gorgeous black boots. The heels are thick, and they look easy to walk in. 

“You see the line of violet on the side? I bought them specifically to match the fabric” 

“Okay, I’ll wear those”

“There is one more thing” He puts the journal and pens back in the bag and looks into her eyes with a more serious face. “I was thinking we could eat dinner at The Olive Pit after the dance. Would you be okay with that?” Cece bites her lip and has a hard time looking back into his eyes. 

“As long as we split the bill. I feel bad for having you spend so much money on me, it’s really expensive there”

“You don’t want me to spoil you, princess?” he asks in a teasing tone, and it catches her off guard. What’s with all the nicknames, and why do they have to be so sweet? Cece answers by taking another big bite of her cookie. It’s still not helping the feeling in her chest. Gunther has the spine to chuckle and push a lock of hair behind her ear. “You can treat me back on the second date if you’re feeling guilty. But now, I want you to feel special. More special that you already are”

“Okay” Cece says in defeat and with her mouth full. “But no meatballs”


End file.
